Simon Cope confirmed as Byron chief executive: Simon Cope has been confirmed as chief executive of better burger brand Byron. He joined Byron as managing director in July from Wagamama, another Hutton Collins Partners portfolio company. The company stated: “Simon has a first-class track record of delivery. He played a significant role in the implementation of Wagamama’s successful five-year strategy, redefining the direction of the UK and US businesses. Simon has held previous senior management roles at Mitchells & Butlers, Suburban Restaurants and London & High Street. With Simon’s appointment as chief executive, acting executive chairman Dalton Philips has stepped back to non-executive chairman.” Philips said: “Simon had an immediate impact on our business when he joined as managing director in July. He understands the dynamics of this hugely competitive and exciting market place. He is passionate about food, gets our customers, is a fantastic team leader and has a serious track record of delivery. There isn’t much he hasn’t seen, and it is clear to me that he is going to be a terrific chief executive for Byron. We have strengthened Byron’s senior management significantly over the past six months and the new team is already making great strides in reinvigorating Byron’s pioneering spirit and distinctive character. I look forward to further progress under Simon’s leadership.” 

Nightlife app aimed at university students fails in £750,000 crowdfunding campaign: Prelinks, an app that provides a comprehensive listing of nightlife and live music events in university cities, has failed to hit its £750,000 target on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube to develop the product. The startup, which was founded by Jono Linden, was offering a 17.65% equity stake in return for investment. Crowdcube said: “Unfortunately Prelinks did not reach its funding target before the closing date.” The pitch stated: “Launched in September 2015 with a strong focus on undergraduate students, we have now scaled to six university cities across the UK. In that time we have amassed 50,000 registered users, who have joined 250,000 events and taken millions of in-app actions. Our growth and increasing market share (more than 12,000 users in Nottingham have downloaded Prelinks) potentially allows us to take a strong market place position between party-goers and event promoters and venues. Using this user base, and the increasing amounts of data gathered, we can create personalised app experiences that help our users find great nights out and events to sell tickets and fill venues. Our app is free to download and our key revenue stream is ticket sales. During the first quarter of 2017, we ran a five-week pilot selling tickets via major platforms such as Ticketmaster and Skiddle. The pilot generated 20,000 link clicks and 2,000 ticket sales, showing the huge demand among our users to get tickets through the service. To capitalise on this demand, we are building functionality to buy tickets in-app, directly through Prelinks. Of the £750,000 we are raising, 16% will be invested in product development, 40% in marketing, 34% in staffing, and 10% in overheads and other costs.”